Hendon moved to within five wins of the Ryman League Premier Division title with a hard-fought win against Wingate & Finchley at the Harry Abrahams Stadium on Easter Monday. It certainly wasn't the most convincing performance of the season, but in the Greens' current position, the victory was the most important thing.

James Fisher came into the starting eleven at the expense of Dave Diedhiou as the management stuck to the same 16 who saw duty against Maidstone United on Saturday.

It was perhaps unsurprising that the efforts of Saturday and the victory over Maidstone would take their toll on the Greens. Wingate & Finchley, who had not played since the previous Wednesday evening, made the brighter start and, in the first minute, Ben McNamara was called into action, making an acrobatic save to tip over a shot from Karl Oliyede.

As it turned out, it was a rare effort on target as Hendon warmed to the task against their near neighbours. Whenever Sam Murphy or Andre Da Costa out wide, or Aaron Morgan or Kezie Ibe through the middle, made runs the uncertainty in the home defence was clear to see. Murphy, in particular, gave Orlando Joao a difficult afternoon.

In the 18th minute, Hendon took the lead. The Greens forced a corner down their right flank and Ollie Sprague came across to take it. He crossed the ball into the danger area.

Bobby Smith came off his line and felt he was impeded as he went for the ball - certainly Elliott Brathwaite took a knock in the incident. The ball took a deflection past Smith and Casey Maclaren, probably less than a yard out, still needed two touches - one of which might have been an inadvertent forearm - to knock it into the net.

After treatment, Brathwaite was able to continue, but the goal certainly relaxed Hendon, who started to play with a lot more confidence and a goal seemed possible pretty much every time the Greens broke forward. On two or three occasions, brave blocks either thwarted shots at goal or incisive passes to another forward player.

Just after the half-hour mark, the increasingly inevitable second goal arrived. Ibe was the instigator with a clever jinking run. He got past both Brad Hewitt and Marc Weatherstone before his heels were clipped, probably by the former.

The ball bounced straight to Maclaren, who fired wide. The referee, however, was playing an advantage and as soon as the ball hit the advertising hoarding behind the goal, he immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Amazingly in three matches between the clubs, it was the fourth penalty awarded to the Greens, but the first which wasn't followed by a red card for the offender.

Wingate & Finchley's only complaint was that the referee could not be certain which of the two central defenders had committed the offence, but it did not matter as he felt the foul had not merited any card sanction. Murphy had taken the three previous penalties - though Jack Metcalfe had been in goal for the League Cup tie - and his only failure had come against Smith in December.

This time, Murphy went one way, Smith the other, and although the ball smacked against the foot of the post, it was the inside of it, and the rebound followed the laws of physics, the ball entering the goal.

Maybe Hendon should have pushed on from here and made the game safe, but the tactics had worked so far so there really was little reason to change it. Fisher and Sprague were doing good defensive jobs on the flanks and none of the Wingate & Finchley front men were getting anything out of Charlie Goode or Brathwaite. In front of them Maclaren and Lee O'Leary were holding sway in midfield, so all looked good.

Then came half-time and the Greens looked somewhat more tentative. Nonetheless, for the first three or so minutes, nothing seemed likely to change the passage of the game. But, out of nothing that all changed.

A long ball out of defence deceived Brathwaite. Goode went for the ball, but it his a divot and escaped him. McNamara came flying off his line, but he was beaten to the ball by David Knight, who lifted it over him into the net. Defensively speaking, it was a sloppy and careless goal to concede, but it gave Wingate & Finchley hope where there had been little or none.

How different things might have been if, in the 59th minute, Morgan's powerful run and 20-yard drive had bent just an inch or two more. As it was the ball struck the post and bounced away to safety. If the Greens had restored their two-goal advantage, they probably would not have had to live on their nerves in the final half-hour.

The Blues did everything they could to get back into the game, but their final ball on the hard and unusually bumpy pitch frequently bounced too far from them. Aerially, they were no match for Goode and Brathwaite, except when Weatherstone, Lake and Hewitt got forward. Weatherstone did put one header over the crossbar, but it was still a rare opening.

Hendon went into "what we have, we hold" mode with a trio of substitutions in the final 20 minutes, Da Costa, Ibe and Morgan making way for Peter Dean, Leon Smith and Sam Flegg, the last for only the final minute or so.

Wingate & Finchley sacrificed Lake for the more attacking Gavin Sudell, while Jack Read had replaced the rather ineffective Harrison Georgiou. The Blues did have the ball in the Hendon net in the 81st minute, but McNamara was clearly barged as he went to reach a corner, which he could not hold, and the whistle for a foul went as the ball was stroked into the net.

In stoppage time, Dean showed his experience, linking with Smith to hold the ball in the corner for almost a minute. To be fair to the Blues, many teams might have lost their discipline and made a reckless tackle in the circumstances, but they didn't - at the expense of the precious commodity time, seconds they didn't have.

Hendon's loud travelling support greeted the final whistle with huge cheers and more than a couple of sighs of relief. FIVE MORE WINS.